Quaternaglia - FOUR (2019)

Four composers, four works, four guitars: Four,Quaternaglia’s first album for GuitarCoop, is the result of a vast renewal in the quartet’s repertoire following the group’s 25thanniversary, in 2017. Since Forrobodó (2000), Quaternaglia had never failed to record works by Brazilian composers; in fact, the opposite is true: all four of the group’s most recent albums were dedicated entirely to the music of its homeland. This profound dive into Brazilian culture is reflected in the group’s discography: a total of 25 new recordings of works by Estércio Marquez Cunha, Lina Pires de Campos, Paulo Bellinati, Egberto Gismonti, Sergio Molina, Paulo Tiné, Rodrigo Vitta, Douglas Lora, Radamés Gnatalli, Marco Pereira, Almeida Prado, João Luiz and Chrystian Dozza, as well as arrangements of works by Villa-Lobos, Ronaldo Miranda, Ernesto Nazareth and Tom Jobim.

The absence of Brazil in the present album, thus, is intentional. In the moment of writing, the country itself is experiencing a very delicate reevaluation of its origin and destiny, and to dwell on the sonorities that emerge from all three Americas is also an attempt to understand both the present and the paths that stand before us in the coming years. Born in the United States, Cuba, Chile, and Argentina, Leonard Bernstein, Leo Brouwer, Javier Farías, and Astor Piazzolla – the composers featured in this album – are citizens of the world, figures that transcend regional frontiers.